The Smithsonian Museum on Main Street program and the National Museum of the American Indian, in collaboration with Florida Humanities, will present its traveling exhibition, \u201cAmericans.\u201d The exhibition explores how deeply intertwined American Indians are in the history, popular culture and identity of the United States. From August 2026 to June 2027, the exhibition will travel to Fort Myers (Dec. 12 \u2013 Feb. 6), Fernandina Beach, Okeechobee, St. Petersburg and Panama City. \u201cAmericans\u201d is on view at the Amelia Island Museum of History in Fernandina Beach Aug. 21 through Oct. 10. <\/p>\n
Amelia Island Museum of History and the surrounding communities were chosen by Florida Humanities to host \u201cAmericans\u201d as part of the Museum on Main Street program \u2013 a national\/state\/local partnership to bring exhibitions and programs to rural cultural organizations. <\/p>\n
The exhibition will tour five communities in Florida from August 2026 through June 2027, including:<\/p>\n
\u2022 Amelia Island Museum of History (Aug. 21 \u2013 Oct. 10)<\/p>\n
\u2022 Okeechobee Historical Society (Oct. 17 \u2013 Dec. 4)<\/p>\n
\u2022 Edison & Ford Winter Estates (Dec. 12 \u2013 Feb. 6)<\/p>\n
\u2022 Sacred Lands Preservation and Education (Feb. 13 \u2013 April 10)<\/p>\n
\u2022 Historic St. Andrew Waterfront Partnership (April 17 \u2013 June 5)<\/p>\n
\u201cThis exhibition is not just an exploration of who the original inhabitants of these lands are, but how we as a nation have chosen to tell their stories, amid both promise and uncertainty,\u201d said Nashid Madyun, Executive Director of Florida Humanities. \u201cIn a year in which we have been able to reflect on 250 years of American history, this exhibit asks visitors to look beyond those borders and understand that the history of the American Indian is part of our shared history.\u201d<\/p>\n
Based on a major exhibition at the Smithsonian\u2019s National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, D.C., \u201cAmericans\u201d highlights the ways in which American Indians have been part of the nation\u2019s identity since before the country began. Images of American Indians are everywhere, from imagery on commercial products and professional and high school sports mascots, to classic Westerns and episodes of Seinfeld and South Park. Indian names are everywhere too, from state, city and street names to the Tomahawk missile. Beyond these images and names are familiar historical events and stories \u2014 Thanksgiving, Pocahontas, the Trail of Tears and Battle of Little Bighorn \u2014 that have become part of everyday conversation. <\/p>\n
Through photographs, hands-on interactives, objects and videos, the exhibition offers a new way of understanding a country forever fascinated, conflicted and shaped by its relationship with American Indians. The exhibition title is a play on words and nods to the name originally given to this country\u2019s Indigenous inhabitants by Europeans. It is meant not only as a reminder of the primacy of American Indians in the territory known as the United States but also of the tangled relationship between Indians and the people now called Americans. <\/p>\n
With grant funding from Florida Humanities, each location will develop complementary exhibits, host public programs and facilitate educational initiatives to further explore this complicated history and to share local stories about Native American identity and representation in American culture. <\/p>\n
\u201cAmericans\u201d was developed by the Smithsonian\u2019s National Museum of the American Indian. The exhibition was adapted for travel by Smithsonian\u2019s Museum on Main Street, to reach underserved and rural audiences nationwide. The statewide exhibition tour of \u201cAmericans\u201d is made possible by Florida Humanities with funds from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the State of Florida through the Division of Arts and Culture and the National Endowment for the Arts. Programmatic support is provided in cooperation with Florida State University\u2019s Native American and Indigenous Studies Center. Additional support is provided by the Jacarlene Foundation. <\/p>\n
Support is provided by the Smithsonian\u2019s Our Shared Future: 250, a Smithsonian-wide initiative commemorating the nation\u2019s 250th. Signature support for Smithsonian\u2019s Our Shared Future: 250 has been provided by Lilly Endowment Inc. Additional generous contributions have been made by Target.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Smithsonian Museum on Main Street program and the National Museum of the American Indian, in collaboration with…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":372071,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[209,211,210],"class_list":["post-372070","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cape-coral","tag-cape-coral","tag-cape-coral-headlines","tag-cape-coral-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/372070","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=372070"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/372070\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/372071"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=372070"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=372070"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=372070"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}